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UNCCD Unveils its SLM Champion Programme and Names the First Champion

Bonn, 12 January 2010. Executive Secretary Luc Gnacadja of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has named Ambassador Kwon Byong Hyon of the Republic of Korea the first Sustainable Land Management (SLM) Champion (pdf) for the Convention. SLM Champions will take a lead in raising awareness on desertification, land degradation and drought among targeted groups, and the public at large. Ambassador Kwon is SLM Champion for the next two years.

Born in 1938, Amb. Kwon, a national of the Republic of Korea, is a lawyer by profession. He has served in various diplomatic capacities in Australia, China, Japan, Myanmar and the United States. His exceptional achievements earned him both the Red (1979) and Yellow (1992) Orders of Merit for Excellent Civil Service and the Order of Merit for Outstanding Diplomatic Performance (1987) from the Government of Korea. In 2008, he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Pittsburgh in the United States, the second such award to a foreigner, and holds the 2nd Annual Award of international cooperation for North East Asia, sponsored by the Association of the North-East Asia Community and supported by Ministry of Unification and the Daily Economy Newspaper. Amb. Kwon has also served as Invited Eminent Professor at Myungji University, Korea, and Professor Emeritus at Luo Yang University, China.

Upon retirement from the civil service, Amb. Kwon set up the Future Forest organization to raise awareness on the issues of desertification and yellow dust storms, to promote the participation of young people in environmental activities and to establish friendship among youth all over the World. In 2005, he begun ‘constructing’ the “Korea-China Friendship Great Green Wall” made of natural forests to ‘tame the yellow dragon’, that is, deserts. His target is planting one billion trees in China’s Kubuchi Desert as part of this Wall to demonstrate that degraded land can be reclaimed, and to provide a research site on reclaiming degraded land. The Great Green Wall is already taking shape, with a 70 percent success rate in tree planting.

“Ambassador Kwon’s distinguished diplomatic career and global experience, combined with an extensive and voluntary public service, position him suitably to champion the call for sustainable land management across the world and among various target groups,” Mr. Gnacadja said when unveiling the SLM Champion initiative.

“SLM champions, such as Ambassador Kwon, are extraordinary people, that were ordinary to start with. But when ordinary people put their minds and hearts to something, they become extraordinary by charting the path to extraordinary achievements. We have launched the SLM Champions initiative because we need ordinary people to rise up and become the front-runners on the land issue,” Gnacadja says.

“Amb. Kwon’s vision of a ‘Great Green Wall’ in the Kubuchi Desert of China is remarkable. Through it, he has provided leadership among young people to take responsibility and action for their future wellbeing. We believe Amb. Kwon’s example will inspire hope and enthusiasm in an international community that is looking for renewed impetus for action on desertification, and will set an example for communities living in drylands elsewhere that change is possible,” Gnacadja says. “Consistent with his work, the UNCCD secretariat considers Amb. Kwon the ‘Greening Ambassador of the SLM Champion programme’. The public needs to know and understand that achieving a global target of zero-net growth in land degradation and desertification is essential for our own survival in the 21st Century. And SLM Champions, such as Amb Kwon, who possess both moral and public authorities through their actions, are well placed to advance such a cause,” he adds.

A video of Amb. Kwon’s work is available here.

For more information, contact:
Marcos Montoiro,
UNCCD Secretariat
Hermann-Ehlers Str.10
53113 Bonn, Germany
Tel: +49-228-8152800
Fax: +49-228-8152898/99
Email: mmontoiro@unccd.int

Championing Sustainable Land Management

~ Champions are ordinary people turned extraordinary.
When ordinary people put their minds and hearts to something,
they become extraordinary by charting the path to extraordinary achievements. ~
Executive Secretary Luc Gnacadja

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has launched an initiative to champion the case for sustainable land management – the SLM Champions. These are world-renown leaders who are committed to combating desertification and land degradation and mitigating the effects of drought by promoting and spearheading the call for the sustainable management of land (SLM). SLM Champions are part of the United Nations campaign implemented through the UNCCD.

A prime role of SLM Champions is to mobilize and raise awareness about SLM among decisions makers, the media and general public. They educate the international public about the growing threats to land through advocacy, persuasion and by example.

Taming the Land Degradation Beast

Land is a valuable asset for the survival of both humans and animals. A little under half of the earth, precisely 41%, is drylands. This is home to one out of every three people in the world today. Of the cultivated systems worldwide, approximately 44%, very close to a half, is in the drylands. That the status of land in the drylands matters for the sustainability of livelihoods today and the security of the global community therefore, is not in doubt.

And yet drylands are fragile ecosystems. Between 1980 and 2005 about 10-20% of the drylands were either degraded or in the process of being degraded. Such land degradation unleashes a downward development spiral. It undermines the conservation of valuable biological diversity. It reduces food production at a time when the global population is increasing. It makes the eradication of poverty among the 1.2 billion poor people that live in drylands unattainable by lowering productivity of the natural resources they need to survive and to kick-start income generating activities.

Sustainable land management, on the other hand, is, on all counts, a winner. By practicing SLM, degraded land is recovered and rehabilitated and water availability is enhanced. Non-degraded land is conserved and protected. In turn, these unleash a virtuous cycle of increased land productivity followed by food security and poverty reduction. SLM Champions will promote SLM practices in all parts of the world, and drylands in particular.

All about the Will

SLM champions believe humanity can resolve the current ecosystem crisis, and that attention to land is a key part of the solution. They have a vision of a world where the land that feeds us is managed sustainably. They are on a mission to advocate, speak on and educate the public and policy makers about sustainable land management; its ability to halt desertification, arrest land degradation, population migration and global warming, and assure food security, water availability and poverty eradication.

The words of Executive Secretary Luc Gnacadja capture the essence of SLM Champions. “Champions are ordinary people turned extraordinary. When ordinary people put their minds and hearts to something, they become extraordinary by charting the path to extraordinary achievements.” SLM Champions have the will to see sustainable land management practiced all over the world and are leading the path to see to its diffusion everywhere.

For more information on the SLM Champions programme, contact:
Ms Yukie Hori
Coordinator
Awareness Raising, Communication and Education Unit
UNCCD
Hermann-Ehlers Str.10
53113 Bonn, Germany
Tel: +49-228-815 2800
Fax: +49-228-815 2898/99
Email: arce@unccd.int

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